Organisation : Alice Carette (Université Grenoble Alpes/ILCEA 4), Claire Marynower

(Sciences Po Grenoble/IUF, PACTE), Rocío Velasco de Castro (Universidad de Extremadura)

On a long-time perspective, the current migratory “crisis” is no other than one of the many and diverse ways in which population movements go North and South in the Western Mediterranean space. Depending on the times and socio-political contexts, the main direction of migrations alternates, between the settlement in North Africa of populations coming from Iberian regions (Vandals in the 5th c., Jews and later on Moriscos expelled from Spain at the end of the 15th c. and beginning of the 17th c., Spanish settlers in Western Algeria from 1830 to 1914…) and, on the opposite, North-South migration flows (Carthaginians in Spain, Arab-Berber conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711, Almoravid and Almohad conquests in the 12th and 13th c., occasional return of Moriscos to Spain, “return” of Jews to Spain under the Primo de Rivera government in the 1920s, “return” of French settlers in Algeria, called pieds-noirs, to Alicante…). While Spain is, along with Greece and Italy, one of the main entry points to Europe, the current situation may be analyzed as a global process of rebordering (G. Popescu, 2011), i.e. the hardening of state borders, which become strong instruments for migration control.

In this context of rising “violent borders” (R. Jones, 2016) the conference, open to specialists of different disciplines (Arabic and Hispanic scholars, geographers, historians, sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists) will reflect on the realities, representations and products of these migrations and crossed exchanges over time. It aims to question the way the border between North Africa and Spain, from the Middle Ages to the present day, has

functioned, in order to identify the pivotal moments of its evolution.

The main points we wish to explore are the followings (this isn’t an exhaustive list):

- The two shores of the Strait of Gibraltar as a horizon of conquest throughout history, from South to North (Arab-Berber conquests and invasions until the 14th c.) and from North to South: imperial projections, realities and fantasies of occupation and colonization (Spanish conquests in North Africa at the end of the 15th c. and the beginning of the 16th c., Francoist project of colonization of Western Algeria…);

- Border cities and pivotal territories of the Hispano-Maghreb border as places of contact, exchanges and crossing between Africa and Europe but also as places of division, separation, loss of liberty, violence and death;

- Representations of the Hispano-Maghreb border: be they mental (fear of the Other, fear of invasion, projections and illusions), linguistic (the words of the border), literary or artistic expressions (including cinema), also historiographical discourse;

- Spanish migrations and settlements in North Africa/North African migrations and settlements in Spain: Sephardic diaspora in North Africa after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, exile of Moriscos’ communities after 1609, Spaniards in colonized Algeria, Republicans exiled to North Africa after the Spanish civil war, Moroccan community (since the 1990s in particular), unaccompanied minors in Spain (notably Moroccans and Algerians)...

- Figures and actors of the Hispano-Maghreb border through the ages: pirates, corsairs, alfaqueques, defectors, spies, converts, merchants, seasonal workers, prisoners, smugglers, human traffickers, members of NGOs ...

- Cultural hybridity and interbreeding: mixed identities, dual cultural traditions, bilingualism, Spanish-speaking community in North Africa, Moroccan literature in spanish...

Key-words : migrations- frontiers- rebordering- population movements- Spain- Andalusia-

Algeria-Morocco-Tunisia-Mediterranean- representations of the Other

Youssef Akmir (Université Ibn Zohr, Agadir)

Anne-Laure Amilhat-Szary (Université Grenoble Alpes)

Pierre-Alexandre Beylier (Université Grenoble Alpes)

Elisabeth Bolorinos Allard (University of Oxford)

Houssem Eddine Chachia (Université de Sfax)

Bernabé López García (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Gabriel Martinez-Gros (Université Paris X-Nanterre)

Carmelo Pérez Beltrán (Universidad de Granada)

Nicolás Sesma Landrin (Université Grenoble Alpes)

be submitted to the organizing committee before March 31, 2021 : alice.carette@univ-

grenoble-alpes.fr, claire.marynower@iepg.fr, rvelde@unex.es